A 36 foot Cabin Cruiser type vessel was rescued early this morning in Belize Waters- about 10 miles east of the City. On board the vessel were three passengers - traveling from Miami and heading to Honduras. While in Belize Waters, the vessel began experiencing mechanical problems. The Belize Coast Guard was notified around 5:30 this morning - where a crew was deployed to the area. The vessel - Mr. Lucky - was towed in and is currently docked at the Old Belize Marina. We spoke with Master Chief about the rescue.




John Diego - Master Chief, Belize Coast Guard
"The operational cell of the Belize Coast Guard received information of a vessel in distress, which was located in the Drunk's Caye area - east of Drunk's Caye, which is located about 10 miles east of Belize City. Our stand-by team immediately deployed in search of this vessel. We found the vessel about an hour later. It turns out that this vessel is a foreign vessel; this vessel was travelling from Miami en route to Honduras. Whilst in Belizean waters, it encountered mechanical problems with the steering - they lost steering. And since then they were drifting, and that is when they made the call, and the Coast Guard responded to the distress call. There are 3 persons on-board the vessel, which is the captain, a national from Honduras; there are two Nicaraguans who are residents of the United States. This vessel was towed by our vessel, which we believe is a significant search-and-rescue case because by us locating these people, we have saved their lives. Many things could have happened where - a lot of hazards such as this vessel could have run aground causing environmental damage. This vessel could have capsized, which caused people to lose their lives. So with the Coast Guard responding efficiently, and finding them in a short space of time, we believe that the search-and-rescue case was very successful."

The Belize Coast Guard, along with immigration and Port Authority personnel conducted a detailed boarding procedure search where inspection of documents was done.

Channel 7